6 Days a Sacrifice is the fourth and final game in the Chzo Mythos series. Like Trilby's Notes, this game takes place in between the events of 5 Days a Stranger and 7 Days a Skeptic. The story follows three individuals trapped in an underground complex owned by the Order of Blessed Agonies and their attempts to escape, and also wraps up any loose ends left by the endings in previous games.
Plot[]
The game starts off by explaining how Chzo transcends time and space, allowing future events to affect the past. As such, the destruction of John DeFoe's cursed idol in 2385 creates a ripple through time and space that can coincide with the destruction of his body in 1993. With John's body and soul now destroyed, only his mind remains, which remains in the burnt ruins of the DeFoe Manor. The destruction of his mind will create a bridge that, according to the Order of Blessed Agonies, will allow Chzo to enter the World of Technology to "purify" mankind.
It is July 24th 2189, 196 years after the events of 5 Days a Stranger and 196 years before the events of 7 Days a Skeptic. In Buckinghamshire County, UK, a new religion known as Optimology, described as an amalgamation of the best aspects of all other religions, has been gaining traction. However, police recently received a tip that unapproved building extension was being added to the building. Theodore Dacabe, an inspector from from the City Council, arrives at Optimology HQ to investigate this tip. Mr. Garriott, head of the facility, begins to give Theodore a tour, but then attempts to kill him by knocking him down an empty elevator shaft.
Theodore is heavily injured but alive, and wakes up in a room where Dr. Samantha Harty is tending to him. A man heavily resembling Trilby guards the room. He makes it clear he is not an ally, and prevents Sam from freely talking to Theodore. Unable to convince the man to get Theodore more adequate medical attention on the surface, Samantha and Theodore work together to activate a medical private screen that completely separates them from the man, then opens a door that lets a tall, faceless man in. The Tall Man kills the Trilby look-alike before disappearing. Sam then explains that they are currently in an underground laboratory complex in the Optimology building, which is nothing but a money making front for the Order of Blessed Agonies, a masochistic cult. They, along with freelance reporter Janine, are all prisoners, having escaped from their cells just moments before Theodore's arrival. There is no way of getting back to the surface as the elevator cannot be called, and communications to the outside are impossible. She, however, does note that there exists one cultist in the lab with them, and that it might be possible to negotiate a way out once Janine gathers weapons. Sam explains that "Trilby" is a mercenary hired to guard the facilities. Sam then tells Theodore to find Janine while she goes to attend to other matters.
Theodore finds Janine, who tells him that she and Sam had been captive for a week or so, and provides him with a gun. Janine refuses to leave the room as she fears "that man." She also asks whether or not help is coming because of a message she had managed to send, but Theodore doesn't know. Theodore then joins Sam in holding the cultist, Canning, at gunpoint to force him into a holding cell. Canning slyly tries to fracture the group by mentioning out loud that Sam was their employee, but Sam quickly silences the topic. The two then try to move Canning to the holding cell, but are immediately stopped in the hall by a man resembling Trilby, who seems perfectly unharmed despite being killed just minutes ago. The man, who already has his gun raised while Sam and Theodore have lowered theirs, demands Canning's release. As Canning brags about having the upper hand, a mysterious figure in red shows up and saves Theodore and Sam by knocking out the man and Canning. He only refers to himself as the Caretaker, and tells Theodore and Sam to lock themselves up in the sleeping quarters until morning, saying that it is too unsafe to roam the halls at night.
Back in the sleeping quarters, Janine asks again when help will arrive after learning that Sam and Theodore have been overpowered. Sam points out that they already did: Theodore Dacabe, as Janine's tip only mentioned an unauthorized building extension and not hostages. Sam and Janine then fill Theodore in on more details. The underground complex surrounds a central area known as the Hub, whose contents remain a mystery. The cultists all evacuated the facility shortly after the facility finished its construction. Sam is a scientist who was doing contract work for the Order before she was locked up in order to silence her. Sam refuses to disclose the nature of her work as she says it'll reflect poorly on her. Janine was doing a piece on Optimology after hearing that several celebrities have joined. She got locked up after discovering the complex from her snooping around. Canning is a low-level acolyte tasked to guard them. All cultists answer to an individual known only as the Prince. Janine identifies the man in the hat as Trilby, and it is made clear that, just like Trilby's Notes, Trilby is regarded as a myth by the general public, but none of them can think of a reason why a mercenary would dress like Trilby now. Likewise, none of them have any idea on who the Caretaker is. Sam then tries to open the door to have another shot at Canning, but finds that it is time locked until morning, presumably by the Caretaker. The group retires for the evening.
Theodore wakes up from a nightmare where he had an encounter with the human form of John DeFoe. Sam tasks Theodore with dragging Trilby away from the door, and gives Theodore her and Janine's number for contact, as calls within the complex are possible. Theodore's first attempt fails, and Trilby locks him up in the holding cell. The Caretaker then immediately releases Theodore by teleporting him to the storage room, where there exists a hazy black cloud. Theodore leads Trilby back into this same room, where the cloud materializes as the Tall Man. Trilby says "the hotel" before getting disemboweled by the Tall Man. Though extremely guilt-ridden, Theodore escapes to the next room, where he calls Sam to let her know of Trilby's demise. Sam and Theodore then successfully lock Canning in the holding cell.
Canning tells the two that escape is impossible through the main elevator, but escape is potentially possible through the Hub. The two then work on disengaging the locks to the Hub. Theodore checks for clues around the complex and finds the code to the Hub. Two people are needed to crank the door open after that, and given Theodore's condition, Janine is called to help. Sam goes into the Hub first, only to walk out dead. After moving the body back to the med bay, Janine loses her head and begins ranting nonstop. Theodore gets her to calm down and Janine, still distressed, leaves the room. The Caretaker then appears to stop Theodore from following her. After a brief confrontation, the Caretaker puts Theodore to sleep.
The next day, Theodore walks around the complex and sees that reality is slowly changing. In the storage room, he runs into Trilby, seemingly okay. Trilby appears to be suffering from amnesia, so after overcoming the absurd notion that he was alive again, Theodore decides to relax. Theodore then accesses the image of the Hub interior, which is just a bunch of old ruins. He shows this to Janine, who will meet him at the Hub. Theodore then finds Trilby inside a lab room, where the latter is still trying to regain his memories, but only remembers brief flashes of events from 5 Days a Stranger and Trilby's Notes, notably the name John DeFoe. Theodore then goes talk to Canning with the information obtained from Trilby. Canning explains that John DeFoe everywhere around them, while also in deep space. Canning then prompts Theodore about Sam's work, which Theodore realizes is cloning, explaining how Trilby reappears just fine even when killed. Canning then suggests that Trilby's memory can be restored with a picture of his creator: Sam. Theodore then retrieves Sam's ID from Janine, who had been holding onto it. Theodore shows it to Trilby, who suddenly remembers a few events from 5 Days a Stranger, but nothing regarding the complex. Theodore convinces Trilby to help them enter the Hub. Janine then reveals that she is terrified of Trilby for unknown reasons, not the Tall Man. Theodore and Trilby calm her down, and then work on getting the hub open, only to find that it won't open. Theodore then takes a staple to fix a blown fuse to get the door working again. He heads back to the Hub to find that Janine already went ahead of them. They find two more Trilby clones standing in front of the door to the ruins, referring to themselves as Doormen. The Trilby clone behind Theodore urges him onward, as Janine might be in danger. The two then enter the door to the ruins, only to find that they are standing in a full-blown house that feels like it's breathing: the DeFoe Manor. The Trilby clone then remembers the place as where he had killed John DeFoe. Janine retorts that it was just a movie, but before Trilby can explain any further, the Tall Man kills him, and the house's breathing quickens. John DeFoe, in his wraith form, then approaches Janine and Theodore, and the two leave the Hub. Janine runs off, and the Caretaker confronts Theodore to explain that the house physically does not exist, as it is just a construct of John DeFoe's mind. The remaining malice of John DeFoe persists in the ruins, and the complex was built around it by the Order. To ensure that the malice didn't infect the surrounding area, Trilby was cloned multiple times and stationed around the complex. Having been responsible for the destruction of his body in 1993, John DeFoe fears Trilby, and thus Trilby became immune to John DeFoe's corruption following the incident at the manor. This keeps John DeFoe's presence contained within the Hub. For unknown reasons, the Tall Man, despite being the leader of the Order, keeps killing the Trilby clones, allowing John DeFoe to influence the complex and thus cause a reality shift. The Caretaker then suggests that Sam's death is not the last, and suggests Theodore to check on her. Theodore, now seeing reality beginning to waver, is confronted by the Tall Man, and begs Janine to open the door. Janine briefly overcomes her fear and lets Theodore into the sleeping quarters. Janine then says that she never voluntarily entered the Hub, and that the next memory she had after opening the door was being in front of Theodore in the room where Trilby died. She then claims that she can feel John DeFoe's influence on her, and the fear she feels because of it. As Theodore tries to comfort her, Janine throws herself into his arms, and the two make love that night (against Theodore's better judgement) in order to forget the terror around them.
Theodore then awakens from a nightmare where he kills Canning, then heads outside he hears Canning scream as the latter dies for real. Upon reentering the complex, reality begins to waver again, and a possessed Janine chases Theodore around the complex. Theodore enters a new door granted by the reality shift, and finds himself in the garden shed of the DeFoe Manor, where he picks up a pickax. He then confronts the possessed Janine, and suddenly wakes up in bed again. Theodore heads into the next room, where he finds that it has reality shifted into the kitchen of DeFoe Manor. He then uses the pickax on a hole in the wall as Janine, still possessed, approaches him. The Tall Man then appears through the hole and stabs Janine. Reality shifts back to the real world, and blood trickles through the wall, confirming that Janine's death is real. Theodore slumps against the wall in defeat.
The story then shifts to February 3rd, 2386 to Malcolm Somerset, who is held in solitary confinement for psychiatric study as the Mephistopheles killer. The Caretaker then appears in Malcolm's cell. Malcolm then demanded that he get him released because the Caretaker had encouraged him to kill his father in the first place under the premise that Malcolm would not get caught. The Caretaker then says that Malcolm would not have been caught had the crew not picked up the accursed box in the first place. The Caretaker then tells Malcolm to use the "key" on the "other door" to escape. Malcolm then receives a package containing an ornate knife, which he uses to uncover a door hidden in the back wall, which leads down a bloody staircase. As Malcolm descends the stairs, flashes of how each member of his crew died are shown, and Malcolm clothes and appearance slowly transforms. At the bottom of the stairs, Malcolm, now fully transformed into the Caretaker, arrives at Chzo's lair, who has imprisoned a Trilby clone to feed on his pain. Malcolm uses his knife to kill the Trilby clone and extracts his soul, which he then transfers to an apparition of the real Trilby, resurrecting him in Trilby's Notes. Chzo then becomes distressed and Malcolm leaves through a pit, the main entrance having been blocked by a mysterious mummy-like entity. In the real world, back in Malcolm's cell, police officers find his corpse, showing that Malcolm had actually cut his throat out with the knife he received to "escape". As he falls through the pit, Malcolm then notes that he is now free of physical form and of destiny, albeit he is now a slave of it and must guide the individuals involved with the story of Chzo in an endless time loop.
Back in Theodore's time, the Caretaker visits Theodore again. He claims that Janine could not be saved, as Theodore weakened her fragile emotional state even further by loving her, allowing John DeFoe to possess her and get her killed. He then says that Theodore can still save himself by becoming John DeFoe himself to defeat the original, and that there are enough Trilby clones remaining to provide him escort through the ruins. Theodore then asks the Trilby clones to follow him, and they obediently do so. The Tall Man kills the Trilby clones one by one as Theodore traverses the illusory DeFoe Manor and gathers the iconic items of John DeFoe. After acquiring the machete, apron, and welding mask, Theodore dons all three items and enters the DeFoe basement. He experiences the thoughts and memories of all individuals involved in the story thus far as he appears to fall endlessly.
The last Trilby clone waits outside the Hub door, and contemplates on how the house shouldn't exist. At the encouragement of the Caretaker, Trilby gets some petrol to set the ruins on fire. Meanwhile, Theodore wakes up and feels a metal surface above him. After some pushing, he finds himself emerging from the locker aboard the EFS Mephistopheles in 2385. The Caretaker's voice then calls to him and drags him back to his time in the DeFoe Manor basement.
Theodore wakes up again to find the Tall Man disappearing in front of him and some box. Theodore examines the box and finds a document explaining the "bridge" events in 5 Days a Stranger and 7 Days a Skeptic. Today, July 28th, 2189, is the exact day when the barrier between the real world and Chzo's world is at its weakest, and the destruction of John DeFoe's mind on this day will finally construct the bridge. The Order evacuated the complex a week before the date in order to ensure that they are alive when Chzo comes. Theodore then examines the machine beneath him and sees that there are "enough nanoexplosives here to atomize an entire county". He then sees that the machine is already disarmed, presumably by the Tall Man. Theodore tries to leave the basement but only runs into the fire that the last Trilby clone started. The fire reaches the nanoexplosives, and the entire Optimology building is blown away in a massive explosion, leaving a huge crater behind.
Six days later, a news report shows that there is an ongoing criminal investigation into Optimology over the explosion, and that Sam, Janine, and Theodore have all been reported missing. The Caretaker then appears on a cliff overseeing the crater commenting on the flawed logic of the Order. Chzo cannot survive in a world without magic, so it is unreasonable to expect Chzo to enter the real world in the first place. Everyone involved with fulfilling the prophecy had been deliberately misled by Chzo. The Caretaker then implies that maybe the purpose of the bridge's construction was to receive rather than send. He then leaves to wait for the future when he would have to "guide" his younger self to set about the events of 7 Days a Skeptic. Before leaving, the Caretaker muses to himself that while he does not mind guiding people to comply with the prophecy with Chzo, he definitely does not enjoy his tasks either.
The game then flashes back to 1779, when Jack Frehorn wrote the holy books for his Order of Blessed Agonies. Three of these books were used by the Order. The lost fourth book, which was tossed out by Jack, told a prophecy that seemed to directly contradict the previous three, all of which implied the arrival of Chzo in the World of Technology. The lost book instead detailed the arrival of a New Prince that would replace the Tall Man. On July 28th, 2189, the Bridge between worlds was formed briefly with the Optimology explosion. Chzo used the Bridge to bring Theodore and the last Trilby clone to his lair. Unconscious and severely injured, Theodore lies in front of Chzo, while the Trilby clone shivers on the side, doomed to be Chzo's next pain meal. The Tall Man, aka the Prince, arrives to see Chzo. Chzo is extremely angry at the Prince for his betrayal: the Prince, who was to be the original bridge, had John DeFoe take his place as the bridge so that he wouldn't die and remain a prince to Chzo; the Prince then tried to prevent the bridge from being created after he learned that the true purpose of the bridge was to bring in the Man of Purity, who was to replace the Tall Man as the Prince. Chzo then strips the Prince of his powers, now once again the Arrogant Man Cabadath, and transfers them to Theodore, who becomes the mummified entity known as the New Prince that the Caretaker saw earlier in the game. Chzo allows Cabadath to fight Theodore for a chance at redemption, but Theodore quickly overpowers him and sends Cabadath down a pit. Theodore, likely no longer of his own free will, accepts his place as the New Prince.